Recently, a robot apparatus, formed after the shape of an animal, such as a dog or a cat, has been presented to the market. Among these robot apparatus, there is such an apparatus which acts autonomously responsive to the information from outside or to an internal state of the robot apparatus. For example, the robot apparatus is designed to act under a command from a user, as the information from outside, or depending on the level of the emotion, indicating its internal state.
The following are the functions of the robot apparatus operating responsive to the level of the emotion indicating the internal state of the robot apparatus.
The robot apparatus has variable states A to D, as shown for example in FIG. 1, and is designed to make transitions between these states under a preset condition or at preset timings. The states A to D are defined by the postures assumed or actions performed by the apparatus when in the states concerned.
For example, when the robot apparatus is ‘angry’ when in the state A, it correspondingly utters, e.g., ‘pi-ro-li-ro-li’ and, when the robot apparatus is ‘happy’ when in the state B, it correspondingly utters ‘pi-po-pa’.
Moreover, by the functions of the robot apparatus, operating under a command from a user, the interaction between the robot apparatus and the user takes place. These functions may be enumerated by, for example, those reacting to contact by the user from outside, and those in action under a command from outside.
For example, by providing the robot apparatus with a touch sensor detecting the contact thereof with outside, and by causing the action of the robot apparatus responsive to the contact thereof with the touch sensor, there is realized the function of the robot apparatus reacting to contact from outside, such as by the user. The touch sensor may, for example, be mounted on, e.g., a head of the robot apparatus.
As for the function of the robot apparatus, operating under an external command, the following technique may be used.
For example, an equipment outputting a scale command, as an external command, may be exploited. The scale command forms a command for causing the robot apparatus to express a preset action by the scale sound. The robot apparatus recognizes the scale command, output by the external control equipment, and performs the action corresponding to the scale command. The external communication equipment, outputting this scale command, may be enumerated by, for example, a sound commander. Meanwhile, the technique of the control system of the apparatus, exploiting the scale command, has recently come to be established.
By such contact as the information from outside, or the scale command, the robot apparatus in the standby state detects ‘being patted’ by soft touch at a touch sensor at the scalp or ‘being hit’ by strong touch at the touch sensor as shown in FIG. 2. As a reaction thereto, the robot apparatus utters ‘pi-po-pa’ as the sound indicating the anger, on detection of ‘being patted’, while uttering ‘pi-ro-li-ro-li’ as the sound indicating the sadness, on detection of ‘being hit’. If the scale command, for example, the sound scale language, is used, the robot apparatus utters, e.g., ‘pi-ro-li’ as an action corresponding to recognition of the scale command.
By the stimuli from outside by contact, or by the sound scale command, the action of the robot apparatus is affected, such as to enable the interaction between the user and the robot apparatus.
Meanwhile, the actions of the conventional robot apparatus are merely determined by its own emotion or by the information afforded by the user. If plural robot apparatus can interact with one another by way of communication, and if the plural robot apparatus can react to one another and operate accordingly, the entertainment character of the robot apparatus will be improved further.
Moreover, if it is desirable for the plural robot apparatus to have a dialog with one another, it may be an occurrence that the plural robot apparatus are not of the same machine type. For example, one of the robot apparatus may be apparatus of an original model, while another may be the product of a generic model, or the plural robot apparatus may be furnished by different manufacturers. In such case, it is difficult for the robot apparatus to react to one another.
The robot apparatus of the generic model may be afforded with the functions of the robot apparatus of the original model. In other words, there are occasions where the robot apparatus of the original model are not afforded with the function owned by the robot apparatus of the generic model. Thus, there are occasions where the interaction function is limited to the robot apparatus of the same machine type.
However, the entertainment character of the robot apparatus can be enhanced by enabling the interaction between plural robot apparatus having different interaction functions. Additionally, it may be said that such interaction among various robot apparatus lends itself to effective utilization of the robot apparatus as resources.